


If I promise to miss you, will you go away?

by Stormlyht



Series: This Town That Loves Me [27]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Decisions, M/M, This town loves Derek, stiles not so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 18:57:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3866065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormlyht/pseuds/Stormlyht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek talks to his beta's about their options before the Alpha Battle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If I promise to miss you, will you go away?

**Author's Note:**

> Lalala, I suck at titles! Anyone want the job? *laughs*
> 
> Unedited, raw power here, if there's inconsistencies please let me know. I can see the end in sight! When I squint! So much more to come, and I can't wait to get it all written for you. :D

Deucalion sat in silence after Chris dropped the bomb of Scott being Stiles’ Alpha, and by the time the arena was cleaned, and protected from werewolves and humans alike, Deucalion and his pack left. Chris came over to Derek and he gave Derek a frown.

“Look, I’m not going to tell you what to do, not anymore, but I think you could use some advice here.” Derek crossed his arms as Chris spoke, not sure what he was expecting out of the hunter. “I think you need to talk to that Uncle of yours to get more information. Then I think you need to work yourself into the ground to make yourself strong enough. Besides all of that, I think you need to not take Stiles for granted.”

“What do you mean?” Derek growled, narrowing his eyes at Chris.

Chris just shrugged and gave Derek an enigmatic smile. “He’s not a child, and he’s never going to sit around and just let things happen to him. Have a good day Derek. I’ll see you again at the end of the week.”

Frowning at Chris, he watched the other man walk away and didn’t relax until he couldn’t hear or smell him. That was when he turned to his pack.

His pack. Derek hadn’t expected to have one of those again, not for a long, long time, and now here he was, looking at his three teenaged beta’s, wondering if any of them were going to make it out of this alive. They all were standing defensively, exhausted, dirty, bodies calm and collected now that all threats were gone. He could hear all three heartbeats, could smell their trepidation, knew that they were waiting for him to make things better, to make things make sense. Derek wasn’t able to do that for them though.

“We need to talk,” he said instead, walking away and towards the river.

“About what?” Erica asked as she kept pace with him. Derek could hear the other two falling in and following as well.

“About what your choices are,” Derek said. “Let’s be honest, I know I haven’t been the best Alpha for you, but you also know I’ve done the best I can under the circumstances. Two of you challenged my rights by leaving, and I managed to get you back safe and sound, but not on my own.” He looked at Erica and Vernon, both of whom were flushing, Erica brighter than Boyd.

“That was…” Erica started, but Derek shook his head at her.

“That was you showing me what I was doing wasn’t working. I was so focused on finding the problem and combatting it that I didn’t do a good job of bonding with the three of you. You all know now why I chose you, but you don’t know why I failed so badly at keeping us together.” He stopped and listened to the water for a moment.

“It was Jackson,” Isaac said simply. “You knew he was a problem, actually, you knew there was a problem and you didn’t know what to do about it.”

“Yeah, that was part of it.” Turning to look at the three of them again, he nodded a few times and then let his hands fall. No more defense, no more hiding. “I needed a pack. An Alpha isn’t strong without wolves to help him. It’s not just the numbers, it’s the bond that forms between them that makes them stronger. We never got to solidify our bonds, because there’s always been something going on that made me feel like I had to attack first, ask questions later. There’s a bond, I can feel it, maybe you can too, but it isn’t really strong.”

“You’re sounding like you want to cut that bond,” Vernon said. “Like you’re saying it’s not strong enough to hurt us if we did.”

“Did it hurt you to leave me?” Derek challenged, and Vernon shook his head. “That’s what I thought.”

“Why would we leave you?” Isaac asked.

“The crux of being an Alpha challenged to a battle like this is that if you all decided to find another pack before the battle, I would be weaker, but you would be stronger.” Derek frowned as he looked at each of them closely.

“You wouldn’t have our strength in the ring, but we might not die,” Isaac said. Derek nodded at him. “But why would you want that? Don’t you want as much power as you can get?”

“It isn’t about that,” Derek said with a sigh. He looked past them at the trees. “I didn’t just need a pack for the power, I needed a pack to have a *pack*. My family was big, I lost eleven people in that fire, all of whom were pack. You three were supposed to be the beginning. I was supposed to bond with you, feel what we needed next, be able to take my time choosing the next member, with input from all of you. Instead there was a kanima, and now a whole pack of Alpha’s that want to kill us. I haven’t been able to properly teach you defense, almost all our training has been offensive.”

“That’s been situational,” Isaac said. “You haven’t been given a chance to do all that.”

“I know,” Derek looked over at Isaac then. “I’m not sure that situational drama isn’t going to keep happening. So you get choices. You can stay with me, lend me your strength, give me more power in the ring.” Then he looked at Erica. “Or you can leave me. Cut your ties to me and find another Alpha, Scott perhaps as he seems to be taking that title.” Erica frowned at him and he looked at Vernon. “Or you can just leave. Cut your ties and go away from town, get a new life somewhere else where you don’t have to deal with me and the Alpha’s at all.” Vernon glared and Derek looked back at Isaac. “It’s your choice.”

Resounding silence came from the three of them for a while and he took a step back, giving them a little space. Amazingly enough it was Isaac who spoke first.

“No fucking way,” he spit the words out and Derek looked at him in surprise. “You gave me hope, you gave me strength to stand up to anyone, to everyone. I’m not going to just walk away and leave you alone to this. I knew what I was signing up for, even if I didn’t know how bad it could get, you still warned me. I didn’t listen, but I’m listening now Derek.” He walked over to Derek and put a hand on Derek’s shoulder. Derek could feel the strength of the bond they had surging, solidifying. Derek leaned into the touch. “I can’t thank you enough for that, and I won’t walk away.”

“Okay,” Derek said softly, feeling overwhelmed with the certainty of Isaac’s commitment to him. “You still have the choice to-“ but he didn’t get to finish as Isaac glared.

“I’ve made my choice,” Isaac said firmly.

Looking over at Vernon, he saw the other boy biting his lip. “I don’t know,” Vernon said finally. He lifted soulful brown eyes to meet Derek’s gaze. “I want to say the same thing, but I don’t know man. I have to… I really have to think about it.”

Derek wanted to be upset by the uncertainty, and he was a little, but he was also glad that Vernon was going to think about it. He nodded. “Take your time. You have a few days.”

“I’m sorry,” Vernon said, but Derek shook his head.

“Don’t be. Make the decision you feel right about. Erica?” Derek asked as she looked at her. She reached for one of Vernon’s hands and held it.

“I… I want to say no, I’m staying with you, but I… I need to think about it too,” she confessed, and Derek knew what that meant. They would decide together, as a pair, because they were. He hadn’t expected it when he had turned them, but they fit well together, and he wouldn’t want to separate them.

“Okay,” Derek said. “Think hard, make your decision, let me know.”

“We will,” Vernon said firmly.

Derek looked around and he took in a deep breath. “Well, I need a shower, and I bet all of you do too. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

With nods, they all scattered to their own places and he headed to the loft. What he hadn’t expected when he got there was for both Scott and Stiles to be waiting for him.

“Hey!” Stiles said cheerfully, holding up some papers. “We have some talking to do, but boy, I think you should shower first.”

Derek glared at him. “Yeah, I definitely need a shower.” Possibly three cups of coffee too because whatever it was that Stiles had to talk to him about was exciting to Stiles, and Derek wasn’t sure he could handle that much enthusiasm at the moment.


End file.
